Stick around long enough and everything eventually cycles back.  The USAF’s just announced re-org replays some parts of previous structures that may seem somewhat familiar to those who claim part of the past.

At Air Force Materiel Command, after the stand-up of the AF Life Cycle Management Center, it is not surprising to see a new AF Installation & Mission Support Center.  In the late 80’s and early 90’s, AF Systems Center and AF Logistics Center were combined into the AFMC to introduce efficiencies between the acquisition and sustainment functions.  The stand-up of AFLCMC and AFIMSC revitalizes what was intended with that merger, but maintains the consolidated efficiency and effectiveness of running those through one MAJCOM.  The AF surely had to work tightly with the congressional depot caucus to gain their thumbs up approval for a new AFIMSC, so the success of the AFLCMC was an important driver and pre-requisite before this new re-organization could be realized.

The ISR function has bounced around over the past 30 years perhaps more than any other service activity.   Many years ago, when intel and recce were more strategically focused, the function of the USAFSS and ESC were aligned with Strategic Air Command and AF Space Command.  The organization re-aligned multiple times as it became more tactically integrated with an increasing near-real-time ability to contribute to combat operations and information dominance.  AFIC stood up the merged missions of the FASTC at WPAFB, AF Special Activities at Ft Belvoir, and AFIA — AFIC soon became AIA.  By 2001 AIA was integrated into ACC and AF ISR Agency was stood up in 2007 as a FOA to coordinate enterprise ISR capabilities for joint warfighters and national users, with a shift from SIGINT to multiple intelligence. Today’s re-org tightens the important AF corporate support needed to fund and defend AFISRA’s expanding missions with ACC’s ability to tie those needs directly to the operational missions.

The A3, A5, A8 changes reflect an ongoing debate about how to best identify, prioritize, fund, and support mission requirements and the programs that address those requirements.  A re-alignment 25 years ago was intended to sync requirements and accountability with the operational functions responsible for planning to use the result in order to force more fiscal stewardship onto the ops community.  Today’s new re-shift pulls weapon system programming responsibility back more closely with the financial budgeting/accounting part of the corporate Air Force.  That’s good.  It also refocuses the operational planning aspects of that corporate body.  That’s also good.  The one aspect that has not changed (and remains true) is that whoever controls the funding controls the outcome.  That presents potential power struggles between ops and program/budget teams around priorities and available funds.

Organizations are restructured to work best within the framework of the decision-makers in place in order to help them best improve the mission and business of the whole.  Today’s re-organizations should support the current fiscal reality, leadership construct, and decision-making arena.  Will it affect those working with and doing business with the Air Force corporate decision-making structure (read: will it be easier or harder to do business, get my projects funded, and/or will it stymie ongoing programs as different voices, perspectives, and processes emerge?)  Perhaps.  However, the intent of a restructure is always to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the decision-making processes, and along the way, make things happen to improve the mission.

What may influence the success of today’s changes is the significant revolution in the way all these organizations can access, share, and analyze information. From an enterprise perspective, common ground around the data used to make decisions is critical, whether for new projects, sustaining existing programs, or understanding ISR in the context of world events.  The process of how to discover new insights, perform advanced analytics, and make the best decisions supporting the Air Force enterprise relies on information leadership that can support all these mission and business functions.  In a world with more data than we know what to do with, leveraging it to best advantage is not just important, but critical to the success of any organizational alignment and ultimately to the long-term success, viability, and relevance of the Service.